Todmorden: Vegetables are sprouting up among the flowerbeds in Todmorden

In the small market town of Todmorden in West Yorkshire in the North of England, 280 km from London, sprouting vegetables have taken over flower beds and green areas. Everywhere, in graveyards and car parks, at the station, on roofs, even in disused rowing boats and wellington boots school playgrounds, the 'Incredible Edible Todmorden' project has planted vegetables and fruit trees and bushes. The aim of the project is to make sure that local foods are grown and eaten throughout this provincial town. The town's companies, schools, farmers and the entire local community are involved in this inspiring, expanding project.

The 'Incredible Edible' project began with a few illicitly
planted herbs in flower beds near the railway station. Voluntary
enthusiasts have since helped the project to grow and today, most
of the town's inhabitants are involved in the project's many
initiatives in some way or other. At the same time, unauthorised
methods have been shelved and the Incredible Edible project has led
to positive dialogue with public and private institutions. The
intention is to make Todmorden a garden town full of tasty, fresh
produce which the townspeople can harvest or pick on their way
through the town.

The local fire station, the railway station and the town's
hospital have now become involved in the project. The town's
schools and high school are actively involved in many of the
project's initiatives. Public flowerbeds are being transformed into
shared herb beds and kitchen gardens, while vegetables, fruit trees
and gardens are shooting up in public parks and green areas. And
Incredible Edible wants to involve even more public institutions so
that their soil can also be used in the town's joint food
production scheme.

The project has now developed into much more than simply
vegetable production. The initiative 'Every Egg Matters' focuses on
local self-sufficiency in eggs and has engaged most of the town by
means of an Easter Festival and the town fete where the focus was
on relevant information about local egg production. A new book
includes interviews with older citizens about their memories and
knowledge about food production in historic Todmorden. Finally, a
future fantasy project called 'Dream Streets' encourages citizens
to visualise how vegetables might be planted in their dream
town.

All the town's schools are now involved in the project and have
laid out kitchen gardens in which the students grow their own
vegetables. Several other schools have grown plants in disused
rowing boats and some vegetables are actually growing in children's
cast-off wellington boots. Todmorden High School wants to inspire
its students to make healthy food using local produce, including
recipes from their own cookbook 'What's cooking in Tod?' and
through inspirational personalities. The philosophy of this is that
the way students prepare and arrange their food is crucial to their
own overall health.

Incredible Edible is by no means a short-term project. It is a
question of changing the way people think; the project compares it
to sustainability - a new way of living and viewing the world. The
cornerstone of the project's work is local commitment. The town's
citizens are involved at all levels of the project, and interest in
it has been growing steadily since its inception. Festivals and
other key events are held to help inhabitants share the experience
and the pleasure of producing fresh local produce. In the long
term, Incredible Edible has ambitions of making a difference by
spreading the local message regionally as well as nationally.

Comments

Food

Key Learning Points >

Incredible Edible largely owes its success to substantial local commitment. By means of festivals, other events and the mouth-to-mouth method, they have succeeded in engaging the town's citizens at all levels of the project and in engineering a feeling of local ownership.

Because of the project's humble beginnings as a grass movement there is never far from thought to action. Todmorden's public and private institutions have been quick to recognise the value of the project and collaboration between public and private institutions in the project have therefore quickly borne fruit.

The Incredible Edible project allows participants to think big and have many initiatives running in parallel. The philosophy is that the imagination is the only limitation, and that Todmorden can only benefit from becoming a fruitful, self-sufficient market town.

Process >

March 2008
The initiators of Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) launch their project.

April 2008
The town's inhabitants are encouraged to plant vegetables in Todmorden's public flowerbeds. Rhubarb and other easy-to-recognise plants are the most popular.

September 2008
The project has lasted six months and has already come a long way. TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall broadcasts from Todmorden, cooking for 400 people at the project's big Harvest Festival.

January 2009
The project launches the Every Egg Matters initiative to promote local egg production. The ambition of the initiative is that by the end of the year, all eggs eaten in Todmorden are to come from local hens.

February 2009
Todmorden’s schools start planting vegetables on their land. Eighth and ninth year students help grow the vegetables, which are used by the schools' canteens.

2018
It is hoped that by this time that Incredible Edible Todmorden has made the town self-sufficient in vegetables, fruit and eggs, and that staple foods, dairy products and meat will be largely locally produced.

City Facts >

Project Facts >

Incredible Edible Todmorden is a collaborative effort between local inhabitants, companies, public institutions, farmers and schools, all working together to increase the production and consumption of local food in the town.

IET's originators, Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear, started the project with a vision of a future Todmorden with food and the environment in focus.

The project wants to engender:
- possibilities - find more soiled cultivates vegetables through dialogue, micro-financing and other tools
- investment - training in agriculture and local methods of distributing and buying food.
- action - removing obstacles to local grassroots initiatives - e.g. by limiting legal problems and soil quality tests, which are a public responsibility inclusion - active inclusion of citizens by creating a feeling of belonging and of easily understood common goals.
- a strong belief in the project - Knowledge of the fact that the project is a necessity. Rhetoric and academic language must not be a limitation. The project is not dependent on others permission and there is no fixed solution.
- reward for labour - Creating jobs. Families can harvest and share the fruits of their labours.
- Openness- The project is an open fellowship.

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